RBI issued a regulation to make Prepaid Instruments (PPI) Interoperable by 31st Mar’22 to drive financial inclusion and improve PPI acceptance
Juspay Technologies, the pioneers of 1-click, frictionless digital payments in India, announced the launch of its new offering ‘OpenPPI’ that helps Prepaid Instruments (PPI) like digital wallets implement and comply with RBI’s PPI interoperability regulation. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a mandate in May 2021 that all prepaid cards and wallets that are full-KYC-compliant, have to be fully interoperable by March 31, 2022. With the launch of Juspay’s OpenPPI, existing and prospective PPI players can comply with the new regulation using an end-to-end secure cloud solution. The OpenPPI solution will enable interoperability through UPI for PPIs.
Interoperability comes as an important initiative towards improving financial inclusion in India. With this, prepaid instruments in the form of wallets, will start supporting the features of UPI Apps, enabling them to operate as ‘Digital Banks’ in transferring money between wallets and bank accounts. Prepaid instruments like prepaid cards can now be used to withdraw cash of upto 2 Lakhs for full KYC accounts.
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On the launch of OpenPPI, the Co-Founder & COO of Juspay, Sheetal Lalwani, said,  “Implementing PPI Interoperability is a game-changer to increase the adoption of UPI and PPIs. Interoperability essentially means that your wallet can now act as your bank account enabling you to transfer money from wallets or cards seamlessly. It opens up multiple possibilities for wallet usage – a person can now scan any UPI QR code and pay with their Wallet balance instead of using their bank account through UPI. As a leading tech provider of UPI solutions, Juspay is delighted to launch OpenPPI, a new-age tech solution that helps companies fully comply with the new regulation.”
Prepaid instruments today account for one fifth of digital payments and are expected to more than double in next 3-4 years as per market reports. The new regulation will accelerate the migration of small and convenience payments from cash to PPI instruments and wallets. The regulation also requires PPIs to be compliant with the same level of security and customer support as mandated for UPI, thereby giving customers more confidence to adopt PPIs.
Speaking about interoperability, Mr. Nalin Bansal, Chief of Corporate and Fintech Relationships and Key Initiatives at NPCI, said, “Prepaid instruments have the potential to bring India’s large unbanked population to the digital financial ecosystem, ranging from crediting salaries to disbursing Government subsidies. This move is a win-win for both the PPI and UPI ecosystems. The convenience of doing full KYC today further enhances the scope of financial inclusion and brings frictionless payments to the masses. This initiative also gives PPI players a level playing field in terms of growing their acceptance ecosystem.”
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Adding further perspective, Mr. G Padmanabhan, Ex-RBI Executive Director, said, “Interoperability of prepaid instruments like wallets, is going to convert them from a niche product to mass product. Sharing of infrastructure brings forth economies of scale in an tech driven ecosystem. Achieving PPI interoperability through the cynosure of the payments world – the UPI – is a rhythm changing initiative.”
Many banks and fintech companies are already in the process of implementing the interoperability requirements. Speaking about the efforts undertaken by Slice, a prominent FinTech player, Mr. Rajan Bajaj, its Founder-CEO, said, “This step by RBI to mandate all PPIs with KYC-compliant to be fully interoperable, is definitely a welcome move. I believe that this will not only benefit the customers but also the fintech ecosystem as a whole, as it will now make digital transactions easier and much more seamless. We are extremely happy to partner with Juspay in implementing an initiative like this which will further deepen financial inclusion in our country.”
Juspay is a key player in UPI and offers Industry leading On-Cloud tech stack which powers the UPI technology for large banks like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank. Juspay is also the UPI payment provider for leading merchants such as Amazon, Google, CRED, Bajaj, Ola, Swiggy, among others. PPIs can also seamlessly integrate with Juspay’s existing suite of payments offerings and get accepted across all major merchants in India.
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